BIOGRAPHY

« A wonderful spontaneity and freshness » 

Joel Smirnoff

« A strong and unique personality, a very original quality of sound, close to masters of the golden years – a strong instinct of Music » 

Emmanuel Hondré

« A style all his own and slightly reminiscent of the great 20th Century violinist of the Golden Age. A very natural player with infectious qualities. Musically very creative and magnetic personality »

Glenn Dicterow

« Definitely has his own style. Reminiscent of an older time of violin playing and music making »

Philip Setzer

« His playing is very inspired; with a lot of flair, with singing qualities and a recognizable personal voice »

Hagai Shaham

« A wonderful virtuosity style with original taste which is very particular and very unique »

Kyoko Takezawa

« Definitely a very interesting player with his own distinct ideas and style. Thomas Lefort takes almost an operatic approach which is so rare to find among young performers today »

Maxim Vengerov

« Music unusuall in the most wonderful way, a genuine musician with originality and absolute sincerity. His playing is dignified, generous, with big bones and much warmth »

Jian Wang

    Noticed at the age of 13 by Ivry Gitlis, Thomas Lefort was his disciple until his death, and lived by his side an intense and complicit companionship on both the violinistic and human levels. At ease in all repertoires, he now defends the legacy and musical generosity of the last great violin legend to have lived through the 20th century.

Born in Marseille in 1994, he studied with Frédéric Ladame, then with Suzanne Gessner and Patrice Fontanarosa in Paris. In 2012, he was unanimously accepted into Roland Daugareil's class at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris, from which he graduated with top honors and a First Prize in violin. He then studied in Italy with violinist Salvatore Acccardo at the Chigiana Academy in Siena and at the Walter Stauffer Academy in Cremona, where he discovered in depth the secrets of the Italian violin school and acquired a taste for the acrobatic virtuosity of Niccolo Paganini's works. He also studied with Renaud Capuçon at the Haute-Ecole de Musique de Lausanne, from which he graduated with a Master of Soloist degree, and with chamber music teachers such as François Salque, Jérôme Pernoo and Nobuko Imai, Pamela Frank and Sadao Harada at the Seiji Ozawa International Chamber Music Academy.

He has won numerous major international prizes: Ginette Neveu International Competition (2007), Rodolfo Lipizer International Competition (2009), Co-winner in the Shanghai Isaac Stern International Violin Competition (2023), First Prize at the Jeune Talent d'Île-de-France competition (2007), Audience Award at the Festival Musical d'Automne des Jeunes Interprètes (2012), First Grand Prix at the Un Violon sur le Sable European Young Talent Competition (2014), Banque Populaire Foundation Prize (2016), Foundation of France Prize (2017), L'Or du Rhin Foundation Prize (2018) (...).

Thomas Lefort has performed as soloist with numerous orchestras around the globe, including the Orchestre National d'Île-de-France, the Ural Philharmonic Orchestra, the Romanian Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestra of Padua, the Pasdeloup Orchestra, the Île-de-France Youth Orchestra, the Ostinato Orchestra, the Loire regional Orchestra, the Cannes-Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur regional Orchestra, the National Avignon-Provence Orchestra (...) and under the direction of conductors such as Jean-Claude Casadesus, Dmitri Liss, Lawrence Foster, Alain Altinoglu, Bruno Mantovani, Adrian McDonell, Roberto Fores Veses, Nicolas Chalvin, Jonathan Schifmann, Chloé Dufresne, Julien Leroy (... ); in concert halls such as the Philharmonie de Paris, Salle Gaveau, Salle Cortot, Salle Pleyel, Théâtre du Châtelet, Fondation Louis Vuitton, Banque de France, Victoria Hall Geneva, Auditorium Stravinsky Montreux, Yekaterinburg Philharmonic, the Palazetto Bru-Zane in Venice, the Grand Amphithéâtre de La Sorbonne, the Fondation Singer-Polignac, the Théâtre de Provence, the Théâtre d'Avignon, the Théâtre national de Saint-Nazaire, the Théâtre de Nîmes, the Opéra de Marseille (...) ; in festivals such as the Martha Argerich Festival in Hamburg, the Sommets Musicaux de Gstaad, the International Festival Les Sommets du Classique in Crans-Montana, the "Le Salon Romantique" Festival at the Palazzetto Bru Zane in Venice, the Folles Journées in Nantes and Yekaterinburg, the Easter Festival in Aix-en-Provence, the Festival de la Roque d'Anthéron, the Chopin Festival in Nohant, the Festival Un Violon sur le Sable, the Festival de Menton (...).

He has already shared the stage with numerous artists, including Martha Argerich, Andreï Korobeinikov, Pierre-Yves Hodique, Yves Henry, Sélim Mazari, Itamar Golan, Vanessa Benelli-Mosell,Tanguy de Williencourt, Ivry Gitlis, Renaud Capuçon, Tedi Papavrami, Akiko Suwanai, Gilles Apap, Lucienne Renaudin-Vary, Benedict Kloeckner, Edgar Moreau, Astrig Siranossian, Emmanuel Rossfelder (...).

His debut album, entitled "Folk", was produced with the generous support of the Patrick & Ute Petit Scholarship, in a duo program with pianist Pierre-Yves Hodique (winner of the Best Accompanying Pianist Award at the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in 2011), released in 2019 on the Mirare label. Here, he tackles pieces "that have made the reputation of the princes of the bow" (Cadences), "generous in his outbursts and timbres, he shows fine poise, fine sensitivity and indisputable technical sureness, a style without emphasis or useless effect, at the service of the specific spirit of each page, with real commitment everywhere" (Diapason). He recently released his second solo album, "Il Violino Solo" (2023), featuring pieces by Paganini, Bach and Enrst.

Thomas Lefort appears in the soundtracks of several films, composed by Grégoire Hetzel: L'innocent (2022), directed by Louis Garrel, Frère et Soeur (2022) and Tromperie (2021) directed by Arnaud Desplechin, as well as the Canal + series Paris 1900 (2021).

He is the creator and Artistic Director of the Festival "Les Étoiles du Classique" in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, sponsored by Martha Argerich in 2022, Jean-Claude Casadesus and Karine Deshayes in 2023, which brings together the best classical musicians of the new generation for four festive days in the open air, to make classical music accessible to all.

He teaches violin at the École normale de musique de Paris Alfred Cortot.

He plays a replica of Antonio Stradivari's 1709 violin "Le Tivadar Nachéz", made by Stephan Von Baehr.